Fans have more friends, and Heineken has the social experiment to prove it. On Matchday 8, the busiest night of the UEFA Champions League, Heineken ran a real-life social experiment in New York that showed shared fandom can turn strangers into real connections.
The experiment marks the launch of LePub’s sponsorship platform for Heineken, Fans Have More Friends, inspired by the book of the same name by Ben Valenta and David Sikorjak. The platform reflects how shared passions help people connect naturally. It’s the first time Heineken is bringing together its sponsorships across football, Formula 1 and music festivals, using fandom as both a social catalyst and a way to elevate social experiences in a world that can feel increasingly lonely.
Behind the experiment was Heineken research showing that three-quarters (75%) of fans say their fandom has helped them meet new people, making it one of the fastest ways to create bonds at a time when many people are missing IRL connections more than ever before. Three in five (59%) said it’s helped them forge some of their closest friendships and 75% said watching sports with other fans, even if they’re not fans of the same team, makes the experience better. Football topped the list as one of the greatest social connectors with 72% of fans saying language is not a barrier when it comes to making football mates in a bar.
To put the findings to the test, Heineken partnered with Zac Alsop to carry out a social experiment designed to test whether fans would really show up for one another when it mattered. The experiment followed Joe, an Australian living in New York, who found himself without anyone to watch Liverpool play Qarabağ FK in the final group match of the UEFA Champions League. Like many people, despite having a life and routine in a big city, he was facing the prospect of watching one of football’s biggest nights alone. To help his friend and prove that Fandom is a great way to connect, Zac handed out flyers across Manhattan with Joe’s face and a simple request, Have A Beer With Me, inviting fellow fans to join him to watch the match on January 28. There were no incentives – just an open invitation to the football community.
Fans from across New York responded in droves, with hundreds turning up to support a fellow fan they had never met before, and the event quickly gained traction across social media. Unbeknownst to Joe, Heineken transformed Central Park Tavern, where the meet up took place, into a Champions League-level viewing experience, flying in the UEFA Champions League trophy alongside football legend Bastian Schweinsteiger who was behind the bar serving beers for fans who made the effort to come.
The experiment in New York kicks off a multi-channel platform launch by Heineken, with the Fans Have More Friends TVC debut this week in the US, with a further 50 markets to follow. The hero commercial, directed by Frederik Bond and produced by Stink Films, celebrates the spontaneous friendships that spark between fans every time a game, a match or a gig is on, and features Heineken’s most renowned brand ambassadors, including Max Verstappen, Virgil van Dijk and DJ Martin Garrix.
The platform will continue to roll out throughout 2026 across football, F1 and music, including the UEFA Champions League Final, UEFA Women’s Champions League Final, Coachella and Grand Prix weekends worldwide.
Bruno Bertelli, Global CEO LePub, CCO LePub Worldwide, commented, “Fans Have More Friends is built on a simple human truth: passion connects people faster than anything else. By turning fandom into a platform for real-world interaction, we wanted to create an ecosystem that doesn’t just celebrate fans, but actively brings them together, transforming shared passion into shared experiences.”
Client: Heineken
Creative Agency: LePub
Global CEO LePub, CCO LePub Worldwide: Bruno Bertelli
Global Chief Creative Officers: Cristiana Boccassini & Mihnea Gheorghiu
Creative Directors: Giulia Trimarchi & Gian Marco Panichelli
Social & Digital:
Global Chief Creative Officer: Kika Douglas
Art Director: Luca Nante
Copywriter: Francesca Marchesi
PR Activation:
Art Director: Vincenzo Russo
Copywriter: Alessandro Traverso
KVS & Post
Deputy Head of Art: Giuseppe Vescovi
Associate Creative Director: Adrian Gambaretto
Senior Designer & Art Director: Niccolò Orso Campanini
Strategy Team: Sol Ghafoor, James Moore, Max Beckers & Aneta Junkova
Client Service Team: Shirine Aoun, Alexis Delwasse, Francesca Baldrighi, Rossana de Rosa, Costanza Angeletti, Sara Margheritta, Chiara Allievi
PR Team: Isabella Cecconi, Alfa Djalo, Luca Orioli
Production Team: Francesca Zazzera, Margherita Fonseca, Miriam Ottina, Giorgia Bellondi, Tina Paolella & Ariberto Anastasi
Production Company: Stink Films
Director: Fredrik Bond
President & EP: Daniel Bergmann
Managing: Klara Kralickova
Executive Producers: Kseniya Kurochkina & Solana Keenan
Producer: Petr Moravec
DOP: Roman Vas’yanov
Offline Edit: Marshall Street Editors
Post Production & VFX: Prodigious Italy
Colour: Company 3
Audio Post Production: Disc To Disc Productions S.r.l
Music Composition: Cheek To Cheek
Music Company: Sizzer
Stills Production House: Bread the makery
Photographer: Justin Bettman
Executive Producer: Iulia Dancila
Digital Production: Boomerang
Media: Dentsu
PR: The Romans
BTL: VML
BTL Design: Design Bridge
